So it’s official, the GB Olympic Snowboard Team has been named. I’ve been lucky enough to have snowboarded with some of them. So I thought I would give you the lowdown on the fab 5!
Jamie Nicholls
Jamie has already competed in his first Olympics in Sochi 2014. He made it to the finals and finished in an amazing 6th place, only missing out on the podium by 1 point. He’s had some good results this season ensuring his spot on the team: 1st place Czech 2016 World Cup Snow Jam, 2nd place Italy 2017 World Cup and 3rd place Czech 2017 World Cup.
Jamie grew up riding Halifax dry ski slope and is a regular at Castleford snow dome. He started riding at the age of 7, and joined the GB team age 15, travelling the world competing. In more recent times he has concentrated on the filming aspect of snowboarding, getting some pretty decent movie parts. He is particularly known for his epic rail riding, and loves a good street rail.
Jamie is a proper down to earth, Yorkshire lad who loves his tea, countryside and everything British and is a very homely and family orientated person. He has been pegged as the “up and coming” British snowboarder since he was in single digits and he hasn’t disappointed. As well as qualifying for the Olympics, Jamie has managed to squeeze in a wedding too! His wife has been travelling the world with him for the last few months. What a lovely life!
Aimee Fuller
Aimee is full of life and energy. She has always had her heart set on becoming a professional snowboarder, and she hasn’t failed! She is probably most well known for her backflips and getting inverted. A super slow laid out back is definitely her signature trick. Some of the jumps she does them on are RIDICULOUSLY HUGE. This girl has balls!
This will be her second Olympics and she really deserved a spot again. She’s had some good results this season grabbing her the place: including 4th Czech World Cup. In the last Olympics she had a smile on her face the whole time and looked genuinely stoked to just be there. She didn’t get the result she wanted but who cares….SHE WENT TO THE OLYMPICS!! She ended up commentating on the rest of the contest with Tim Warwood and Ed Leigh in the BBC commentary box. People will most likely remember how ecstatic she was for fellow team mate Jenny Jones when she got her 3rd place on the podium.
Although growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland doesn’t give many opportunities to snowboard, that didn’t stop Aimee. Before Ireland, she lived in Kent, where she went to the local dry ski slope every Saturday. At the same time, she was also competing in motor-cross. Luckily for her, her family moved to Virginia, USA when she was 12. Then she had the chance to learn to ride on real snow. She went off to a snowboard camp in Mount Hood, and it was from there that she got talent spotted. The rest is history.
BBC/ Twitter @Mattloughlin
She is such a fun person to be around and her energy rubs off on you, I’ve throughly enjoyed anytime I’ve spent with her. She doesn’t take life too seriously and always likes to have a laugh. Last month she even released her own clothing brand “AF”. A jack of many trades!
Billy Morgan
Billy Morgan, what an awesome character!!! I’ve had the pleasure of spending quite a bit of time on and off the slopes with this guy and he is WILD!! Also coming from a gymnastics/ acro background, he is like a Duracell bunny on snow. He does these insane acrobatic tricks, stuff that you wouldn’t even think was possible. He has developed a pretty big name for himself by bagging a few “first- time” tricks: first Triple Rodeo, first back-to-back Triple Corks and first ever Quad Cork. He is all over the internet and has a lot of hype around him, and quite rightly so!
I remember at parties too, he would always be performing some kind of party trick that would include being upside down (obviously before he became all serious and a professional athlete of course!). You never knew what to expect next with Billy, making him a very exciting snowboarder/ general character to watch and to be around.
This will also be his second Olympics, he landed himself an amazing 10th place in the 2014 games. Coming from a dry slope background, this is quite an achievement. Since joining the GB team he has honed all of his “wildness” into proper snowboard training and become a lot more consistent rider. I feel like he might have something crazy up his sleeve for this Olympics.
Rowan Coultas
This be Rowan’s first Olympics. He first appeared on our radar in 2009 as an up and coming grom. He only started snowboarding when he got some lessons as a Christmas present but he is now one of the UK’s biggest hitters. He has had some good results during the Olympic qualifying period; 5th Air and Style in Austria 2017, 7th FIS World Cup Italy 2017 and 8th Big Air World Cup Korea 2016.
Rowan lives in Mayrhofen during the winter and also travels the world competing with the GB team. It’s not surprising he’s so good with Penken Park as his playground. I still think of him as a little kid, but he’s 19 years old now and seriously killing it. He progresses really quickly and has such a solid style. There hasn’t been loads in the press about him but I really think he could be the dark horse in the competition.
Zoe Gillings
This will be Zoe’s 4th Olympics! She competes in a different discipline to the rest of the team, the Snowboard X. Rather than tricks down a course, it’s down to pure speed. The fastest person wins. She has had some amazing results in her career including 7x SBX World Cup Medals and 9th in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. She is GB’s most successful SBX athlete of all time.
Zoe started off skiing believe it or not, then turned to snowboarding when she was 10 years old and competed in her first British Snowboarding Championships. She went from strength to strength and turned pro when she was just 16. She has a MASSIVE result when she finished 1st place in the South American World Cup in 2004. Unfortunately in 2005 she had an awful accident where the doctors actually told her she would never be able to walk again, let alone snowboard. But she proved everyone wrong and came back even stronger, competing and getting many results over the last few years.
As if there’s not enough on her plate being a professional athlete, she also runs her own business, writes for several industry magazines AND has her own Grass Roots School Campaign. I have no doubt that she will secure another good result in this year’s games.
Don’t forget to tune in for the start of the 2018 Winter Olympics starting on the 9th February. GO TEAM GB!!
And if you want to be coached by an Olympian this winter, join us on our Girls Ski Camp with Emily Sarsfield in April!
